Chessboard
by forget me knott
Summary: If you would have told her six months ago that she was going to try to learn chess to bond with Antonio Dawson's 10 year old son, Sylvie Brett would have thought you were crazy. But here she was.


Here is another one. Hope you enjoy. I don't own anything. :)

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Sylvie groaned, head hitting the back of the bed frame in frustration. She was tempted to throw the chess board and pieces across the room, but decided to take her anger out on herself.

She had met Eva and Diego for the first time a few days ago. She thought going to Antonio's parents' anniversary party was scary and intimidating at the time, but it was nothing compared to meeting his children.

Eva had welcomed her wholeheartedly, asking her about her career as a paramedic since the 16 year old was thinking about becoming a nurse. Since her own aunt, Gabby, was a paramedic as well, Sylvie was extremely flattered that Eva went to her for information. With that tiny connection, they were able to hit it off beautifully, Eva even giving Sylvie a hug before she left.

But Diego…. Diego said barely two words to her. Actually, they were just "hi" and "bye". No matter how much Sylvie tried to converse with him, he only answered with a shrug or a shake of the head. Antonio tried to assure Sylvie that he was doing the silent treatment with everyone these days, totally fixated on his chess app. But Sylvie could clearly see the strong relationship Diego had with both his father and sister, and while she wanted to make sure she didn't overstep her boundaries, she really did want to form some kind of relationship with her boyfriend's son.

Later that exact night, Sylvie went out to a local department store to buy a chess set and an instruction booklet. However, the directions had seemed like another language to her. It was incredibly confusing.

Cruz's advice had helped, but she still needed to do better. She would be seeing Diego again in a couple of days, so she was on a time crunch.

She was on break, and like the days prior, she was spending it desperately trying to expand her knowledge on chess.

She didn't let Antonio in on her plan, not wanting him to know how badly she was trying to bond with his son. Yes, she assumed that he would actually be happy that she was wanting to get along with Diego. But she couldn't get rid of the thoughts in the back of her mind that were telling her not to freak him out.

"Damn it," She muttered, again rereading a section over. She considered herself to be a fairly intelligent person, but for some reason she couldn't figure out a simple game like chess.

Her ears perked up when she heard people approaching. She didn't mind the curious eyes, and since she was trying to learn the game in the firehouse she knew that she couldn't hide what she was doing from the others. Even Boden, who stays away from his firefighters and paramedics' personal lives, walked past her once and gave her a few tips.

When she recognized the voices however, she immediately went into a panic mode. They belonged to two people, and it wasn't the first voice that bothered her. That one was Herrmann's, but the second voice was Antonio's.

"Crap!" She tried to rush putting away the chessboard and pieces, but in her hassle she knocked the majority of the pieces off of the bed.

She had to decide what she was going to do, and fast. Herrmann and Antonio were quickly approaching. As she was down on the ground attempting to pick up the pieces as fast as she could, on a whim she decided to hide underneath the bed.

She saw the two pairs of feet a few seconds later from her position under the bed. She had hoped that they wouldn't have noticed the mess she left, but they did.

"Huh." Antonio's feet stopped, Sylvie could easily distinguish his shoes from Herrmann's, turning towards the bed. "Whose playing chess?"

"Oh! I bet it was Bre—" Sylvie cringed, if he revealed that she was learning chess, Antonio was bound to figure out why.

Luckily, Herrmann realized this. Or probably remembered that she specifically told everyone who found out her new hobby to not tell Antonio. Either way, she was grateful.

"Boden. He's been really into the game recently." Sylvie couldn't help but cringe again when she heard the direction Herrmann decided to go. Boden, really? That was the least believable person to go with. She understood that their last names both started with a B, but still he could have chosen another name.

"Really?" Antonio sounded suspicious. It wasn't going to be easy to get this target off of her back. "Wouldn't he do all of this in his office? And pick up after his mess?"

"Eh, Uh…" Herrmann was fumbling over his words, but then recovered. "Feelin' nostalgic from his older days."

"Right." Again, Antonio sounded skeptical. "You know what, Herrmann, I think I left my keys back there. I'll update you later, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan." Herrmann begun walking away. "I'll tell Brett that you said hello, then?"

"Yeah, that would be good. Thanks." Sylvie listened to Herrmann walk away until she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore.

However, Antonio's feet didn't move at all. Anxiety begun to find its way into her stomach, starting to believe that he didn't misplace his keys at all.

"Ah!" She couldn't hold back a surprised yelp when he suddenly leaned down and shoved his head underneath the bed. Her head shot up and hit the bottom of the bed, an instant reaction that she couldn't avoid.

"Ow." She moaned, gratefully taking his hand to help herself up as she crawled out of her hiding spot.

"You okay?" He took a hold of her head, examining it with great detail. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing he was only concerned. But still, she had only bumped her head. There was no dire emergency.

"Yeah." She couldn't help but wince when his hand brushed against the place she bumped her head. "You scared the shit out of me, though."

"Sorry about that." He apologized. "To be fair, you shouldn't hide underneath the bed."

"I thought you wouldn't notice me." She admitted. "But I should have known that I wouldn't have been able to fool you."

"I'm a detective, it's my job to take in my surroundings." He told her, clearly amused. His hand still gently strokes the slight bump on her head that she received from the scare. "Also, you left your phone on the bed."

Sylvie looked down, and indeed, on the bed laid her iPhone. She wasn't that sneaky after all. It probably would have been better if she just continued sitting on the bed instead of making this mess. Because now, her head was bruised and she was frazzled.

"Next time I have to do better, I guess." She grabbed her phone and tucked it into her back pocket. She didn't want to leave it alone again, better to be safe than sorry.

"Next time you try to hide from me?" Antonio took his hand off of her head, crossing it over the other in front of his chest. "I assumed you would have been pleasantly surprised to see me."

"Well, yes—of course, always—" Sylvie stuttered out, her boyfriend making her feel flustered. She didn't know why she was still feeling this way, so on edge. He was going to put the pieces together in a matter of minutes that Sylvie was trying to learn chess to get Diego to talk to her.

He turned his attention to the chess pieces on the floor, staring at them for a few seconds, an unreadable expression on his face. He then looked at the bed, picking up the introduction to chess book, flipping through the pages. Sylvie was unable to speak, she was filled with nerves. It felt like there was a humongous lump in her throat.

Sylvie assumed it was better to stay silent anyways, as Antonio would be able to figure out what was going on by himself. Plus she didn't know exactly what to say.

More butterflies begun to fly around in her stomach when she finally saw him begin to realize what was going on. He turned towards Sylvie with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"You're trying to learn chess for Diego?" His eyes were now looking directly into hers. She could see the distinct surprise in them.

Sylvie scratched the back of her head, deciding just to go for it. She was trying to get closer to his son, form a connection. He wouldn't feel anything but gratitude towards her. Right?

"Yeah, I am." He didn't say anything, only giving a nod as an encouragement for her to continue. She took that moment to take a deep breath, to try to recollect her thoughts.

"So….the other day.." She begun to explain the why she was learning chess for Diego. "I hit it off with Eva, well at least I'm pretty confident I did—"

"You did." Antonio confirmed. "She really likes you."

At that news Sylvie couldn't hold back her smile. "Really? That's great!" When Antonio didn't respond, she remembered that she was in the middle of telling him why she was learning chess.

"But with Diego….he barely said anything to me. And if I am recalling this correctly, I am pretty sure those words were hi and bye." She told Antonio. "And I noticed that the whole time he was so invested in that chess app on his phone, so I decided…." She gestured to the empty chessboard and also the instruction booklet Antonio was holding in his hand. "Well, you can assume the rest."

"Why?" Antonio pressed, stepping closer to Sylvie. She took ahold of his hands, pulling him down so they both could sit on the edge of the bed. Before her bottom touched the mattress, she pushed the chessboard to the other side of the bed.

"What do you mean why?" Sylvie thought he would understand immediately why she was wanting to get along with Eva and Diego so badly. "They are your kids, the most important people in the world to you. So that makes them important to me too. I don't just want to have forced small talk with them every time we see each other, I want to develop a relationship with them." She confessed, hoping this wasn't too serious relationship stuff she was treading on. Yes, him introducing her to his kids was a big sign that he viewed their relationship as something serious, but she wanted to make sure she wasn't overstepping any uncharted territory.

Sylvie became quiet, awaiting Antonio's response. But he didn't say anything, only continued staring at her with an intense look in his eyes.

She must have freaked him out. Sylvie opened her mouth, trying to think of a way to fix the situation—

When Antonio's mouth rammed against hers, as his hand reached up to cradle the back of her neck. His initial action was rough, but as their lips met, he became gentle. Each time their lips briefly separated, he came back again to catch hers in between his like she was a piece of delicate porcelain glass. Sylvie matched his pace, reaching her hands up to grasp the back of his leather jacket.

"God, I love you." He whispered as they parted. Either his declaration of love was because of the heat of the moment, or he had actually planned this. Knowing Antonio, it was probably a combination of the two.

"What?" She breathed out, eyes widening. She knew what she should have replied with, but he had caught her off guard.

Antonio seemed to get even more determined. "I love you." He repeated. "And I've been feeling this way for a while, but I didn't want to scare you off—"

"You scare me off?" Sylvie blurted off, interrupting him. Probably wasn't the best decision, as he had just told her he loved her and was explaining his feelings, but she couldn't hold back her surprise. Especially when she was worried that she was going to scare him off! "That's ridiculous."

"Like it's ridiculous that you thought that I would be scared off by you?" Sylvie opened her mouth in surprise, as she didn't mention to Antonio that piece of information.

"You're so easy to read, babe." Was Antonio's reply, which Sylvie couldn't argue against. What he said was completely true.

"You don't have to point out the obvious." Sylvie told him, finally letting go of her grip on his jacket.

"I'm just waiting for your reply."

"My reply?" Sylvie repeated, slightly puzzled. "What reply—oh!" She covered her mouth with her hands. Had she really not responded to him yet?

"Yeah, oh." Antonio mimicked, leaning forward.

"I love you." Sylvie finally responded, clasping her hands around his neck. Antonio didn't reply with words, pressing his lips against hers again.


End file.
